The Grammy Awards just shed more than 30 categories, following a year in which it handed out 109 statues. And the requirements for a category to be awarded at all are now tougher. You can read all about it on the awards show's site.
As a music consumer, I don't find the Grammys especially relevant, [...]

Regular readers—if I have any—will know I'm ambivalent at best about bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding. (Especially if the regular reader is former Arts Desk editor Sarah Godfrey, who's tolerated my rantings about Spalding for at least two years.) Put simply, I think Spalding is a spectacularly talented bassist who sounds better every time I hear her play; her [...]

Good morning! Last night: the Grammy Awards! I probably should've watched the show, seeing as last year's was the most enjoyable Grammy ceremony since, well, ever. Instead, I'll be Tweet-sourcing today's roundup, courtesy of @citypapermusic. A few highlights:

Lady Gaga AND Elton John? Be still, my beating heart. #grammys
And the winner of Song of the Year goes [...]

*Gold Derby is predicting that Taylor Swift will win Best Album at Sunday's Grammy Award ceremony, edging out fellow nominees Beyoncé, Dave Matthews Band, Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas. Not predicted? Everyone's favorite category: who will show up the biggest drunken mess?
*Despite George Clooney's appearance on every awards show and television commercial lately [...]

Why were Ben Gibbard and his fellow Death Cabbers donning electric blue ribbons on their lapels at Sunday's Grammy Awards?  To launch a campaign against Kanye West's darling studio trick, of course.

John Lee Hooker, Jr. has a simple plan for celebrating the inauguration.
"I'll have a box of tissues here—no, a handkerchief—but I'll be sitting on the couch, man, and relaxing and watching history be made."
The son of the Boogie Man knows a thing or two about "change we can believe in." After a precocious childhood [...]